Transforming Water Management in South Africa: Designing and Implementing a New Policy Framework

Description

One of the early set of reforms that South Africa embarked on after emerging from apartheid was in the water sector, following a remarkable, consultative process. The policy and legal reforms were comprehensive and covered almost all aspects of water management including revolutionary changes in defining and allocating rights to water, radical reforms in water management and supply institutions, the introduction of the protection of environmental flows, and major shifts in charging for water use and in the provision of free basic water. Over ten years of implementation of these policy and legislative changes mean that valu­able lessons have already been learned and useful experiences gained in the challenge of effective water resources management and water services provision in a middle income country. Transforming Water Management in South Africa analyses and documents these experiences for the benefit of water managers and policy makers in the country, the developing world and the international community at large. Front Matter....Pages i-xxviii The Political, Social and Economic Context of Changing Water Policy in South Africa Post-1994....Pages 1-17 Water Resource Situation, Strategies and Allocation Regimes in South Africa....Pages 19-32 Water Services in South Africa 1994–2009....Pages 33-71 Water, Sanitation and Wastewater Management: Some Questions for National Water Security in South Africa....Pages 73-96 Transforming Legal Access to Water to Redress Social Inequity and Economic Inefficiency....Pages 97-118 Protecting Aquatic Ecosystem Health for Sustainable Use....Pages 119-144 Catchment Management Agencies: A Case Study of Institutional Reform in South Africa....Pages 145-163 National Water Security: Planning and Implementation....Pages 165-180 Pricing of Water for Cost Recovery, Economic Efficiency and Social Equity....Pages 181-201 Mainstreaming Gender in Water Management in South Africa....Pages 203-214 The Role of Information Systems Management in the Management of Water....Pages 215-235 The Water Research Commission....Pages 237-251 Transboundary Water Management Issues Under the NWA and Regional Collaboration, Policies and Conventions....Pages 253-270 Lessons and Conclusions....Pages 271-276 Back Matter....Pages 277-278